NASCAR
Ryan Blaney Wins Nashville with Dominant Second Half Triumph
LEBANON, Tenn. – Team Penske now has perfect representation in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. This four-man sweep came at the hands of Ryan Blaney, who puts a streak of bad luck behind him in Nashville. Ford No. 12 was very stout in the Cracker Barrel 400’s second half, taking home a popular Music City win.
Equal parts pit strategy and muscling his way by teammate Chase Briscoe gave the Stage 1 win to Denny Hamlin. The Progressive No. 11 Toyota would outlast a few restarts, but lost a stage sweep to Ryan Blaney’s superior long run car. Stage 2 also saw an astounding nine different drivers involved in some on-track incident.
Defending Nashville winner Joey Logano initially inherited the lead to start Stage 3 after pit stops. After a near-immediate yellow though, Blaney shot out of a cannon on the ensuing restart. The No. 12 cleared Logano by turn three and took off for the horizon. Blaney’s win was anything but secure here, however. His team had to be flawless on one final green flag pit cycle, which was executed to perfection. Thanks in part to lapped traffic, Blaney pulled away from Carson Hocevar in the closing laps for his first win of 2025.
“I never gave up hope, that’s for sure,” Blaney said. “We’ve had great speed all year, just hasn’t been the best year for us as far as good fortune. The 12 boys are awesome; they stick with it no matter how it goes, and it was great to finish one out tonight.”
“We drove up to seventh there in the first stage, and I thought two tires were great. I thought my car was really good, and that really set us up for the rest of the race, so great job by him, as always, all the 12 boys, appreciate what they do pit crew was great. Appreciate Menard’s, Cardell, Ford, Ford Motor Company, Roush Yates Engines, Discount Tire, Wabash, Worth, Snap-on, DEX Imaging, Body Armour, Advance Auto Parts, everything what they do. It’s nice that it’s finally happening, so I’m ready to go celebrate.”
Ryan Blaney did celebrate this victory with a rare winning burnout. “I didn’t think it was very good, but did the crowd like the burnout or not? They liked it so that’s all that matters.”
Behind Blaney and Hocevar, Denny Hamlin rebounded to third after attempting a late final pit stop strategy. Joey Logano and points leader William Byron rounded out the top-five. They were just ahead of: Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, and Christopher Bell. Hear from a few of these drivers below.
Blaney is the ninth driver to secure a Playoff berth with a win through 14 weeks of 2025. The next shot for a season-defining victory will be Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. The FireKeepers Casino 400 goes green at 2 p.m. ET on Prime Video, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Blaney is a past Michigan winner, and will try to keep the Heritage Trophy in Ford’s backyard.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
